Shadows
by WhatGraceHasGiven
Summary: Fear lurks in shadows. [Scary story warning...it'll get scarier as I get more into the story]
1. Default Chapter

Shadows

The bell rang at exactly twelve o'clock, signaling lunch break for all staff and students. The kids in Mr. Syme's English class were already packed before the bell rang, and they were out the door not a minute after it was finished ringing. Lunchtime was a period _everyone _looked forward to because it was freedom from a classroom, or it was freedom from teaching the same lesson three times a day.

But just as Ponyboy Curtis and Jennie Cade were getting ready to leave the room, Mr. Syme stopped them. "Hey, Cade, Curtis, could I have a moment with both of you? I know it is lunch hour, but it'll only take but a moment, I promise."

"Sure," they said at the same time, holding their books against their bodies as they walked over to their teacher's desk.

"Some other staff and I held a meeting this morning about sending advanced kids off on a new special program that would allow them to explore other cultures and styles of teaching. It's the Foreign Exchange Program. Now, we were looking over lists of kids and you two came up. Very few people were on that list." He paused to cough before continuing…

"Both of you get exceptional grades every semester…high honor roll and all the works. You're both perfect candidates for the program." He stopped talking to see if they had any questions.

"What would we do?" Pony asked, standing close to Jennie.

Mr. Syme cleared his throat. "Well, every year the board would choose a different country to send the kids to. This year it's Japan. You would go with three other people from this school and this grade. Once you got there, you stay with your group only while you sleep…otherwise, you'd go to different schools on different parts of town; a bus would take you from the school back to the Checkpoint, which is where everyone meets at a certain time, and then vise versa."

Jennie nodded, but she looked unsure. "This all sounds real great, Mr. Syme, but I'm sure it's expensive…and we couldn't pay for that."

"I thought so…" He opened the drawer of his desk, "But the teachers and I thought you two were the best out of the list, and we would love to send you to represent our school." He held up a check. "All I have to do is sign it. If you don't want to go, I can VOID it easily. You two have no pressure to go."

"W-what…you mean you'd pay for us to go?" Jennie choked out, surprised to the point of being unable to speak.

"A few other teachers helped out…Mr. Hart, Mrs. Lewis…they believe so much in you guys. We've never had any students that weren't disruptive in class, didn't turn homework in, talked back to teachers, and so on…but you two are the quietest, most respective kids we've seen in twenty years. You should be proud of that."

"Thank you, but you didn't have to use your money on us…" Jennie started. "We can pay you back…maybe not by the end of the month, but we can try to…"

"Jennie, you just go on home and tell your parents you get to go to some trip for school. If they don't ask about money, you don't have to tell them. Teachers cannot accept money from students. Any more questions about the trip?"

"How long will we be there?" Pony asked.

"It depends on the teacher's special Foreign Exchange curriculum, but it never exceeds five months, although anything can happen."

"What can we bring…or not bring?"

"We allow almost anything. You'll be taking a bus to Oklahoma City's airport and from there you'll board an airplane and arrive in Japan. So anything considered as a weapon is not allowed and neither are drugs, but anything else is fine; you can bring electronics, books, food, pictures, pens, pencils, notebooks…anything to keep you busy or anything that might make you less homesick."

"Can we write to our family and friends?" Jennie asked.

"I thought you'd be the one to ask that question, Miss Cade. I know how close you are to your brother. And the answer is 'yes'. You may send out as many letters as you want, but you should get your own stamps because none will be available. And everyone gets two phone calls for ten minutes twice a week."

"Then we should bring money? How much?" Pony asked, shifting his books in his arms.

"Yes, definitely, bring money; I would say you should bring as much as you can afford to bring to buy souvenirs, postcards, food, stamps, and anything else."

Mr. Syme handed them some packets that explained everything from dress code to what should be brought with you. He tore out the sheet that explained the cost of the trip. "I'll need the medical forms by Friday next week if you decide to go. We just need to know allergies and medications." With that, they ended the conversation and Jennie and Pony left the room, hurrying to get out of the school before Two-Bit's patience wore off.

"You think they waited ten minutes for us?" Jennie asked, running down the hall as fast as she could to keep up with Ponyboy.

"I'm sure they did—you're here and I don't think anyone would leave you behind, especially if Johnny has a say in it."

"They'd wait for you, too, Pony."

They reached the doors and left the building. Two-Bit was parked in front of the school, laughing hysterically at something someone said. He must have seen Pony and Jennie, for he pointed and said something. Only Johnny and Dally were in the vehicle, so there was plenty of room left when Pony and Jennie hopped in. "Did you guys forget where to go?" Two-Bit inquired, grinning like a Cheshire cat on drugs.

"Don't be stupid, Jennie wouldn't forget where to go." Dallas said, dropping a cigarette out the window.

"Hey!" Pony exclaimed, understanding Dallas' meaning.

"Hay is for horses," Dally replied nonchalantly, searching pockets for another cigarette. He looked at Jennie. "Don't worry kiddo, I won't light it yet." Everyone knew Jennie hated smoking and she had a strong view of "secondhand smoke kills" and she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Children, children, children! Stop all this nonsense." Two-Bit said, trying to sound motherly.

"Anyone willing to tell me why the hell you were so late?" Dally looked from Pony to Jennie, and his eyes, his stern gazing eyes, softened just a hair when he looked at Jennie Cade.

"It was nothin', Dal…" Jennie said after a minute, leaning forward to stuff the packet Mr. Syme had given her into her backpack. "We just had to talk with Mr. Syme."

"That crazy lunatic…man, is he still teaching?" Dallas laughed.

Jennie shook her head at Dallas' outburst, but she was trying not to smile. She so badly wanted to tell Dally that Mr. Syme wasn't a "crazy lunatic", but she didn't.

"Aw, Dal, come on; you were in his class for one day." Pony said.

"…and he assigned a twenty-point essay the very first day. What kind of crazy loon assigns homework on the first day? It ain't a way to make friends…" Dallas grumbled the rest angrily, but Two-Bit had started to pull away and no one seemed to be paying attention anyways.

It took a normal, safe driver six minutes to get from the school to the DX…but the way Two-Bit was driving, they were literally there in thirty-seconds. He had been cutting corners, driving on grass, hitting curbs, and narrowly missing dozens of cars, but he was grinning his trademark grin while Dallas laughed and made it seem like he was having the time of his life. Dally didn't drive so well either.

Sodapop nudged Steve, laughed, and waved to them as they swung into the parking lot at the DX. Before she knew it, Jennie felt herself being pulled out of the car by a laughing and grinning Sodapop Curtis, who twirled her around in the air and then set her back down.

"You guys are late!" Steve called from the table he was sitting at, eating a hamburger.

"Blame Pete and Repeat over there." Two-Bit said, looking over at where Pony and Jennie and Johnny had already started to laugh at Soda.

"Who?" Steve asked, walking over and wiping his face.

"Pete and Repeat…God almighty, you are really stupid!" Dally glared at Two-Bit. "He means Jennie and Pony."

"_Pony _and _Jennie_ were late? Wow, I've got to write it down! What's today's date…the nineteenth?" Steve asked.

"You're a few days ahead there, buddy! It's the sixteenth!" Soda called, pulling the Pepsi out of the vending machine for Pony. Jennie said something to Soda and he grinned sheepishly. "Did I say the sixteenth? I meant the fifteenth."

"Yeah…right…" Steve rolled his eyes at his friend.

They all sat at the two tables, since one table wasn't enough to fit all of them, and they joked and ate and drank pop. "Jennie, aren't you going to eat something?" Soda asked, noticing Jennie wasn't touching her pop.

"I'm not really that hungry." She wasn't. She was thinking too much about that Foreign Exchange thing to even care about eating. Her stomach felt queasy, and she didn't know why.

"You sure? I know how you are with all that 'let everyone else eat first, I'm such a burden' thing." Soda looked skeptically over at his friend.

"I'm just thinking about stuff…that's all."

"Is Jennie Cade lying to us? Gasp, I never thought it possible!" Two-Bit joked.

"Honest, I'm not lying. I really am just thinking."

"Mr. Syme said we didn't have to worry about that Anne Frank thing because he'd explain most of it to us tomorrow." Pony said, understanding Jennie's reason for feeling weird. Jennie always felt like a burden, and when Mr. Syme paid their way into that student exchange, she felt worse. Of course, she knew he only did it to help, but she really didn't like feeling too burdensome.

"No, Pony, it's okay. We should just tell them what Mr. Syme was talking to us about. We'll have to give the stuff to our parents anyways…" Jennie said, defeated and wanting only to tell the truth. She knew the truth couldn't get you into trouble.

"Oooo, the goody-goodies got in trouble!" Two-Bit chanted, and Dally slapped him on the side of the head pretty hard.

"Shut up," Dally warned.

"We didn't get into trouble, Two-Bit," Jennie said tiredly, "we…well, Mr. Syme wants us on this program for the top kids in the school. It's a Foreign Exchange thing. We'd go to Japan or something like that…for five months. I don't know if I want to go."

They were all looking at her and Pony. "A-and what does something big like this cost?" Soda asked.

"Nothing for us," Pony said quietly.

"_Nothing_?" Dally looked at Jennie. He could get it out of her with a guilt trip; Jennie Cade couldn't lie. "Is that right, Jen?"

"Did y'all hear about those new streetlights they put up around the lot? It won't be so dark at night now." Pony tried to change the subject, but Dallas didn't seem to care too much about streetlights at the moment.

"Is that right, Jen?"

"What? The streetlights are up now? Yeah, I saw them, it's right…" Jennie said.

"Don't get smart, Jennie."

"Okay…Mr. Syme sort of paid _for_ us." There. She said it. It almost killed her, but she said it.

"He paid for you to go? Both of you?"

"Well, no, he had help from a few other teachers…"

"Do you want to go?" Dally asked.

"Please, Dal, I don't know yet. Let me think about it."

"No, Jen, if you're going to go, just come out and say it. I suppose Pony's going. At least you won't be ditching one of your friends for something school-related." Dally stood up. "You know, Jenafer Cade, I thought I could understand you. But you're just as stuck-up as the rest of the kids that get good grades…"

"Dally, I didn't…" Jennie started, but Dally shook his head.

"Shut up, Cade, I mean it." And he walked away.

Jennie watched him go with wide eyes. She felt terrible now, even though she didn't think she had said anything to set Dally off. "I didn't mean to make him mad…" she said, turning back to the rest of the gang.

"Not you, Jen, it wasn't you." Soda said, his eyes unveiling an unidentifiable emotion.

Jennie gave a weak laugh. "He called me by my full name." No one ever did that unless they meant serious business or they didn't know Jennie well enough to not call her Jenafer.

"He's only mad that you might go away without him." Johnny said quietly for only Jennie to hear. Jennie shook her head. She didn't think that was it.

"It doesn't matter anyways. I don't think I'll go." Jennie said, taking a sip of her pop.

"Jen, don't let his stubbornness get in the way of your fun. You're smart. It's not a bad thing. You ain't being stuck-up if you go on a field trip." Soda said, trying to reassure his friend.

"Yeah, it's stuck-up, Soda. Only a few people get to go…only if you've got the brains and the grades to go." Jennie replied, sadly. She never classified herself as "smart" ever, not even when she got put up a grade level and got stuck in al advanced classes.

Jennie didn't want Dally to stay mad with her for going. She didn't want to be considered stuck-up for going. She didn't want to be a burden because Mr. Syme and the other teachers had to pitch in money because her parents had been lazy drunks and didn't go to school when they had the money sitting in front of them. She would rather not go on some school thing if it would affect her friendships. Her friends were more than that: they were family to her. One big family. And that was more important to her than some school thing.

The solution to her big problem: don't go.


	2. Decisions

Decisions 

The air was just right, not too cold and not too hot. Jennie Cade sat in the bleachers at the school and watched as the runners made their way around the wide track. Track meets didn't appeal to her in any way, but since Pony was running in them, she figured she could sit around and cheer him on. If no one was there that Jennie knew, she wouldn't be sitting there. But Pony was one of her best friends. She had to.

Ponyboy was clearly the best runner there. He was ahead of everyone by a long shot. He looked at Jennie, who was on the very last row of the bleachers, and he smiled to her as Jennie gave him a thumbs-up. Jennie was the only one cheering him on. The rest of the team was Socs from all over. And their parents weren't about to stop cheering their child on for another greaser.

Pony was on the other side of the track now, and a Soc was gaining on him. Jennie could have sworn that the Soc was talking. Jennie watched as Pony turned his head once quickly, and she wasn't sure if he had said something. A few more Socs were coming up on Pony now, and Jennie frowned. She didn't feel right for some reason.

Pony was a good deal ahead of the Socs, although they _were_ coming up really fast. He wasn't sure where they had come from since a moment ago, they were eating his dust. They were running as fast as they could, but Pony was better than all of them combined and he didn't even have to try to stay far ahead of them. But then they were all following one step behind. They were getting too close for comfort. "Greaser!" One hissed.

Pony thought maybe he could just run a little faster. The end line was really close. He just had to do a good sprint and then he would win. But the Socs had formed sort of a box around him, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground with his knees all scraped up and his arm was bleeding. He couldn't move. Ponyboy just lay there on the track, coughing, and trying to breathe normal, for the fall had knocked the wind out of him. He heard some shouts from the crowd and however long later, a few people had crowded around him. "Pony, you okay?" It was Jennie's voice, but she sounded so far away.

Pony rolled over with a moan. "I'm fine…" he choked out, and tried to push himself up off the ground. "…cheaters…"

"I'm scheduling a rematch. Those boys will not be running in it, I can assure you that." It was his coach, Mr. Morris, who was speaking now. Pony was feeling better now, but his knees were throbbing and his upper arm hurt like heck…although now nobody seemed far away. A few people helped him up and he wobbled on his feet for a minute, but he felt better than before. "You going to be alright, son?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." His lungs were still painfully gasping for air.

Jennie waited for Pony outside the boys' locker room. Pony was the only one in there since coach told him to go in before he dismissed the others. When Pony emerged five or six minutes later, Jennie smiled to him. "You did real good out there, Pony."

Pony shook his head and they started walking out of the school. The walk home was quiet until Pony spoke up, "I'm going to go to that Foreign Exchange thing."

Jennie nodded. "So am I."

Pony was taken by surprise. Jennie didn't want to go the last time they'd talked about it. "You are?"

"Yeah," Jennie looked at the ground, holding one strap of her backpack.

"Why?"

"Well, Soda talked to me a little before we left the DX." Jennie kicked a rock and it landed in the grass that was off to the side. "He said some stuff that made a lot of sense."

"Soda's that way, I guess. So now you're going; that's tuff. Maybe we'll be close when we go to school there." Pony said.

"Yeah,"

"There's going to be five of us. Make sure you stock-up on stamps or we'll have to deal with some very unhappy people who won't be getting letters every day…when we get back."

Jennie laughed.

"You coming home with me?" Pony asked as he and Jennie passed the corner of the street Jennie lived on.

"Yeah, I want to do homework with you. And we can fill out those slips together." Jennie said.

Pony nodded and pushed the door open. "We can start those right away, and then ask Darry anything we don't know."

"Okay," Jennie followed him into the house. They threw their backpacks where they normally did—in Pony and Soda's room, on the bed—and then kicked their shoes off in the corner before sitting on the couch in the living room.

"First page—basic information." Ponyboy said.

"Name, Ponyboy Michael Curtis."

"Jenafer Lynn Cade,"

"Age, fourteen,"

"Me, too," Jennie was only three months younger than Ponyboy.

"Height…five-six, maybe?" Pony guessed, hoping he was close.

"Five feet two inches…I know that for a fact." Jennie said, and she smiled.

"Weight," Pony frowned, "good question, I'll be right back." He left the room and disappeared into the bathroom. He came back a few seconds later. "One hundred and eighteen pounds exactly."

Jennie shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"You can go weigh yourself. The scale is under the sink."

Jennie excused herself and when she came back, she said, "Almost one hundred pounds."

Pony was looking at her. "Go eat some cake, girl!"

"I'm not hungry." Jennie smiled.

"Alright…eye color: gray-green, I guess."

"Yeah, I think so. What color are my eyes?" Jennie asked.

"Same as Johnny: black."

"You can't have black eyes, I don't think. I'll say dark brown."

"Okay, hair color: reddish-brownish…that's not on here."

"Say 'auburn'; it's the same thing. I'm going to say my hair is black."

"Date of birth: September sixth, nineteen fifty-three." Pony said, writing it down.

"December thirteenth, nineteen fifty-three." Jennie said.

It took them almost an hour to fill out anything and everything that they knew, and that still wasn't all of it. They couldn't answer any medical things that asked for phone numbers of physicians or anything. They could answer about any allergies and things, but a lot of the medical stuff was hard to answer by their selves, so they waited until Darry got home. Jennie didn't really have a doctor, so hers was easier than Pony's.

"Dallas!" Soda called after his older friend.

Dally kept walking, ignoring Sodapop.

"Dally, just wait and hear me out!"

"Shut up, Curtis, unless you want a black eye!"

"Dal, please…for Jennie's sake, listen to me." Soda pleaded.

Dally merely walked faster. "I have nothing to say to her, or about her."

"Dallas, listen you yourself! What did Jennie do that was so horrible? She said she didn't want to go…"

"No, let her go."

"Oh, I am. I convinced her to go a few hours ago, and when I called home, she and Pony were filling out slips. She's going." Soda said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Dally was quiet and he stopped dead. "Well, I'll just go over and tell her not to. The girl's so guilty, she'll listen to me."

"You will not. What's your problem? This is a big reward for her hard work…hers and Pony's. Why should she not go just because you say so? Why don't you want her to have fun?" Soda asked, his voice stubborn. He wanted an answer. But Dallas also was stubborn, and he wasn't about to say anything more, so there was no point in even arguing anymore—no one was going to get an answer.

"I don't have to talk to you."

"Dallas…"

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Soda, what'd you run into?" Jennie asked when Soda walked into the house with a black eye.

"Dallas' fist," Soda said with a grin as he pulled some ice from the icebox and pressed it to his left eye.

"Dally!" Jennie and Pony exclaimed in unison.

"Well, why'd he do it?" Pony asked.

"I pushed all the wrong buttons, I guess, and he…"

"Oh, gosh, it's my fault!" Jennie burst out. "Isn't it? You tried to reason with him about what happened at the DX during lunch today! Didn't you?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't your fault, Jen. I wanted to know, too." Soda sat on the couch by the only girl in the gang. He put his arm around Jennie.

"Maybe I should just stay if everyone's going to fight about it." Jennie said, getting off the couch to call her English teacher. "I'll just call Mr. Syme and tell him it's not the best time for me to go, but Pony can still go if he wants to."

Soda got off the couch. "No, no, no, Kitten," Soda started, using an old nickname the gang had given to Jennie; a nickname they hardly used anymore, "just forget Dallas. You know him; he'll be mad about it for a few hours and then he'll forget it even happened…after he's done screaming and yelling. When you come back, I'm sure he'll be done with his tantrum."

"Fine, but nobody better fight anymore. I don't want _anyone_ getting black eyes." Jennie picked up the phone. "I'll call Mr. Syme and tell him that I'm going."

"You do that, Jen," Soda grinned and walked back to the living room.

"Hello, Mr. Syme? It's Jennie Cade," She said, "I just wanted to say that you can count me and Pony in on that trip."

"That's great, Jennie."

"When are we leaving?"

"We'll leave for Oklahoma City next week on Thursday by bus, and we should arrive in Japan a few hours later. The airplane ride is longer than the bus ride."

Jennie thanked him, said good-bye, and hung up.

Maybe this vacation would be good after all.

Maybe…


End file.
